Civil War Days

So the girls have been doing a 5 week unit study on the Civil War in our Tuesday TNT Co-op, and usually the last week they have a 5th week activity. It's usually a pretty big production and it's a culmination of the things they've learned and into a big production. Well apparently the co-op sent out an email at the beginning of the unit study to say during the 5th week activity the kid should dress up in costume. Well I apparently missed that email, until 2 weeks ago. To which I then begin looking for costumes for civil war period and southern belle costumes. Do you know they cost any where from $35 - $65 for a little girls costume. I thought for sure with Halloween just over I could surely get a good deal...uuhhuuhh..I looked everywhere from Craig's List, to ebay to Etsy (I've been banned from Etsy so the temptation to go back was such a rush), but anyone who knows me, knows I'm not against spending money on something if my kids need it, but this was something they were going to where one time. So thanks to my friend Heather who showed me how to use my sewing machine a year ago, the Internet and the stranger I stopped at GStreet Fabrics to ask how exactly do you put a gathering on a skirt. So here is the result of my work. Now so you wouldn't notice how crooked my stitches or seams are I put lace at the bottom and used thread that just blended in well, but don't look to close because those zippers gave me fits.
Of course after I spoke to my fried Heather on the phone like 3 times, she promptly reminded me that they didn't have zippers back then and I really should not be stressing out about this.

However I'm a bit of a Type A personality so it had to be done the way I wanted it or it wasn't going to be right.
They didn't come out too bad, they were kind of upset they didn't have aprons to go with them, but I put these two together in 4 days.

Here are some of the kids at school.

Most of the boys got caps and most of the girls got bonnets.

Of course we got an email that said please do not bring any weapons to school...LOL..

Here is my friend Heather, thanks for your help, it would have been nice had she mentioned she would be wearing this beautiful gown while she was teaching.
Here is Kaleigh with her bonnet, she's worn it for the past two days. Just a side note, I asked Kaleigh to get her journal out so she could draw a picture and write something she did at school during the 5th week activity and to write a sentence about it. This is what she wrote....

I am holding a gun at school. (To which I made her add some more information to this sentence). It was civil war day.

Apparently the kids had to go from room to room and each room was decorated differently and discussed different areas of the civil war. One of the rooms was an artillery room and Kaleigh got to hold an old gun that was apparently bigger than she was...I was a little scared to know my child was holding a gun... but then she told me that the guest speaker to the kids that if they came to Gettysburg they would be able to see a live reenactment...she wants to know when we are going. We love history....but this one may have to wait a bit.